The Hunt for Heaps . . .

What follows is a brief recap of Ben's adventures during the previous two weeks . . .


*Candy challenge (and first day Paul-less): Success!! 43 miles, from Truckee to Sierra City, hiked solely on Reeses Pieces and two Red Bull colas. Yes, Ben did succeed in the challenge, but he failed in that he lost his love for his favorite candy. He has since been re-introducing Reeses into his diet slowly and carefully. Note of advice to parents: Yes, Ben did live a child's dream at the ripening age of 25--candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He has experienced it, and has come back to proclaim that the dream is better left a dream. So parents, let your children eat candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for one entire day, for you may never have to buy your children another Twix bar or bag of M&M's for the rest of your days.

*Crater Lake Challenge: Failed!! Miserably at that. After a week hunting down Heaps at 40 miles a day and neither catching him, nor ever reaching his needed daily average to make Crater Lake in time, Ben chose to hike only to Ashland, 110miles short of Crater Lake. After catching Heaps and slowing down to 20 miles a day for two days, the Ashland challenge became a 50mile/day average rally. This was also attempted, but Ben cut this short by 220miles and exited at Castella, CA with severe tendonitis in his right shin. Instead, he hitchhiked to Portland, an incredible adventure in itself: riding with a woman and two daughters who showed Ben the local swimming hole as well as local places to camp in Dunsmuir (5 miles north); riding with a young man to Weed, CA who worked for the railroad and was still suffering from a severe car accident 5 years back (excellent dude, but his truck was falling apart and at one point, the passenger door opened on the expressway) (20 more miles north); and finally riding with Nancy to Eugene, Oregon (270 miles north), who hitchhiked around the world for 12 years and had stories about hiking Everest, swimming with Tiger sharks and getting stung by box jellies, surfing in Hawaii, hitching on a sailboat from Africa to Brazil, and so many others. She dropped Ben off in Eugene for a couple days, where he coincidentally ran into two old friends from Northern (thanks James and Kelly!!) who took him in for night. He did a quick Prefontaine tour of Eugene and Nancy picked him up to take him the rest of the way. He arrived to Portland Friday afternoon, safe and sound.

*Pancake challenge: Postponed. Never made it to Seiad Valley.

*Half-Gallon (ice cream) Challenge: Success!! However, Ben lost miserably to Heaps, self-proclaimed "dairy-king of the world." Heaps even bought an additional pint to rub it in Ben's face. Fortunately, Heaps suffered intestinal consequences for his arrogance.

And a story about Ben and Heap's reunion . . .

After miles and miles tailing Heaps and after many notes left by Heaps informing Ben of his plans, they finally arrive to the same city--Chester, CA. Yet, they are still separated. Ben checks the library, the ice cream parlor, and finally the Pizza Factory, certain he will find Heaps at one of his routine stops. No such luck. So he investigates the grocery store. NOthing. He decides, "why don't I visit the bathroom and brainstorm?" While sitting in the stall, the door creaks open, and what do you know, but Michael "flashdance" "Heaps" Walker sidles up to the urinal. Ben can see his shoes and gaiters from beneath the stall. Ben loses himself in a fit of laughter, and they have been reunited.

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!!

Pictures have been posted!  Feel free to revisit older posts for new pictures!!  And thanks for all the comments and for sharing in the journey!!

A Parting of Ways

*Ben and Paul have decided to spend their final two weeks on their own walks, but they will be reunited in Crater Lake, Oregon.

Ben will embark on a series of endurance challenges:  food challenges and physical challenges .

For example:

-Candy challenge:  one type of candy only for 40 miles--Ben has chosen Reeses Pieces.

-One meal challenge:  for 3-4 days, eating only one type of meal for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  Ben has chosen summer sausage, cheese, and tortillas.  Heaps has chosen Pop Tarts and cheese.  What a weirdo.

-Pancake challenge:  5 pancakes in one sitting at a particular city known as Seiad Valley.  The hard part--each pancake weighs 1 pound.

-Crater Lake Challenge:  hiking to Crater Lake, 670 miles away, in two weeks.

Goodbye High Sierras (a bittersweet end)

Tuolomne Day:

Reunited!  We found Heaps, however, our dear comrade Todd has left the trail for a week to attend a wedding, and Monologue is still a couple days back.  And we've gained a crew member (temporarily), a dude named Willy from Boston.  After an afternoon spent at the Tuolomne General Store eating ice cream sandwiches and other snacks, we spent the night at a prime Yosemite campsite with Willy, Heaps, Carlos, and Gabe and had a few beers and a few laughs.

Day 1 out of Tuolomne:

We got a late start in the morning after the beers last night (but an excellent breakfast which began with an ice cream sandwich).  And yes, Yosemite National Park is truly as beautiful as the pictures (and we didn't even get to the famous valley).

Day 2 out of Tuolomne:

Heaps and Ben see their first bear on the trail, a moderately sized adult with a golden brown coat. It snorted at Heaps and then proceeded to do some sort of yoga move, balancing on three legs.  Heaps seems to think the bear was urinating, but he's also from Australia let's not forget.

Day 3 out of Tuolomne:

How many mosquitos does it take to drive a man insane?  We've discovered the answer but we don't want to talk about it.  Res assured that you DO NOT want to hike through meadows during the first hatch.  The trade-off: cowboy camping at 10,000 feet on a volcanic ridge of the Sierra Crest watching a brilliant "fire sunset."

Day 4 out of Tuolomne:

The 4th of July!  What a fine holiday.  How us hikers celebrate:  stumble upon trail magic in the morning.  "The Sonora Pass Cafe"  where we ate fresh fruit and Independence Day cake supplied bye "The Owl."  Next we hike a total of 31 miles and go to bed surrounded by mosquitos.

Day 5 out of Tuolomne:

Heaps, Paul, and Ben, all tuckered out from the day before, forge ahead.  Heaps has the bright idea of a 32 mile day, and since Ben is running out of food, he joins.  Paul hangs back, enjoying the beautiful lakes, volcanic ridges, and wildflowers while hiking just a measly 25 miles.  

Day 6 out of Tuolomne:

Ben and Heaps head into Echo Lake for resupply, and the Heaps ditches Ben for South Lake Tahoe.  All 3 are separated. But shortly afterwards, Ben experiences the most incredible trail magic - on his hike to Echo Lake he meets a Richard Lyman, a man who stops Ben on the trail after his German Sheppard runs out to meet him. Suddenly he offers Ben the option of sleeping on the porch of his lake house, not even aware that Ben needs to meet Paul that following morning and that it's illegal to camp within 4 miles of Echo Lake.  Oh, the serenity of sleeping on a lake (not to mention a nice evening swim to wash that hiker scum away.  Its been more than 2 weeks with out a shower!!!)

Day 7 out of Tuolomne:

A lazy day in Echo Lake.  Ben and Paul reunite over milkshakes and Doritos with nacho cheese (what a breakfast!).  Then they proceeded to hike past one lake after another, sometimes stopping for a snack or a swim.  They arrive to camp in the evening, a granite boulder field with a clear view of the sky, in preparation for the full lunar eclipse.  Alas, both Ben and Paul were too tired to stay awake and fall asleep before it even gets dark.  (However, Paul says he saw it happen in the middle of the night, twice.)

Day 8 out of Tuolomne:

We have come to our final supper, Paul and I.  Tomorrow is to be our final day hiking together.  So how do we spend it?  Why of course hiking 28 miles, eating dinner at separate times, talking intermittantly, but sharing a final dessert of one StarBurst a piece and cowboy camping atop a mountain saddle that is part of Squaw Valley Ski Resort.  There was no better way to spend our final night out in the woods together.

Day 9 out of Tuolomne:

Into Truckee, CA!  Our home away from home!  Thanks to Josh Bennett and his lovely girlfriend Nicole (and their amazing golden retriever puppy, Chompers), who doesn't seem to cast judgement on two hobos, and kindly opened their home to the two of us.  And what's more, they invite us to a Snoop Dogg concert in Reno.  And of course we said yes -  you most certainly cannot get Snoop Dogg out in the mountains.  

Day 10 0ut of Tuolomne:

What madness we found in Reno, Nevada.  Casinos, Stephen Marley, Snoop Dogg, lights everywhere, and a level of noise that we didn't exactly know how to handle.  What we ended up deciding:  just dance.  And now today we rest, watch Labrynth, try and post pictures, and whatever else our hearts desire.  Tomorrow we split - Ben goes North towards the Oregon border and Paul hangs around Tahoe doing some more hiking and camping with Josh around the area.

Our heart's desire turned out to be rafting down the Truckee River in Reno, a two hour affair filled with bags of wine, beers, and malt liquor energy drinks.  Contrary to Josh and Paul's other buddy Orlie's description of a nice relaxing "float" down the river, we were left exhausted from the sun and from paddling to avoid perpetual boulders in the whitewater rapids.  Still, all we can say is awesome.

Welcome to the High Sierras!

Day 1 out of Kennedy:
*Although always difficult to leave the comforts of town, we nevertheless entered into the magical mountains of the High Seirrras, filled with meadows wildflowers, and unfortunately, thunderheads. We lost Todd in a rainstorm, but when the coulds parted, we found ourselves camping at 10,000 feet to majestic views of snow capped peaks above, and glistening meadows below.

Day 2 out of Kennedy:
*We know, we know, only our 2nd day out and we're headed back to town-Lone Pine, known for its Alabama Hills, the set for many of our familiar westerns. But at least we hiked 23 miles to get there and when we reached Horseshoe Meadows, the place we needed to hitch from to get to Lone Pine, 20 miles away and 6,000 ft. less in elevation, we found no one but a few weekend campers. We waited for an hour and a half, and our last car, a minivan filled with 2 kids and a dog, stopped to pick us up. Thank you Scott, your wife, owen and cash! (Ben's famous last words: "That's a minivan and they have kids. They won't pick up a bunch of scummy, scary dudes like us." He was wrong).

Day 3 out of Kennedy:
*Well, if hitching into town was difficult, how about hitching out. 5 hours, and 3 different hitches later, we made it back to the trail in the bed of a pick-up. Yes, we froze our buns off zooming up to 10,000 ft. at dusk, yes, our legs fell asleep as we crammed in amongst horse saddles and camp gear, but yes, we also made it back to the PCT. On another note: We believe gaining altitude invokes flatulence. Anecdotally, this proves true. Scientifically, we also believes this proves true because pressure builds at higher elevations. Shadow thinks it's because we ate velveeta shells and cheese that night, but we think Shadow is just shy about his own flatulated condition.

Day 4 out of Kennedy:
*Hail Mt. Whitney! A beautiful day, some serious river fords, our first alpine lake, a team of horses and riders(very western) and we reached Crabtree Meadows ranger station, our base camp for Mt. Whitney. Tomorrow, we climb to the top of the contiguous United States.

Day 5 out of Kennedy:
*Happy Father's Day! And on such a glorious day, we awoke at 5 am to frozen water bottles, excited, yet slightly apprehensive about our 4,000 ft. climb. As for Whitney, it's almost too difficult to describe. But we climbed over snowfields and felt like true mountaineers-albeit, without any true mountaineering gear (those at the summit with ice axes, crampons, and big puffy jackets looked quite impressive).

*Not only were our water bottles frozen, so were my shoes. After banging them on a rock for 15-20 minutes I was off to follow Ben, Shadow, and Rocketman to the top of Mt. Whitney's 14,496.811 ft summit. All the hard work was worth it, I even didn't mind getting ridiculed for wearing my straw beach hat all the way to the top.

Day 6 out of Kennedy:
*What do you do when fear stares you in the face? Sled down that motha! We reached Forrester Day, an infamous mountain pass due to sheer size and difficulty. We climbed for close to 9 miles over alien territory (snow and rock and a few marmots) to this tiny notch separating 2 mountain peaks. At the top shadow and Ben raced down the snowfield on the back side of the mountain, clutching their sleeping pads beneath them. Paul followed behind on his butt, a method called glissading in alpine climbing terminology.

*If it had been a 3 way race, Paul would have blown the other two out of the water. A soaking wet rear end is a small price to pay for possibly breaking a record for speed and distance.

Day 7 out of Kennedy:
*Cliff jumping into alpine lakes, traversing snowy passes, and strolling through meadows of wildflowers foregrounding expansive mountain vistas, need we say more?

*Who would have thought that a lake at 10,000 ft elevation being fed by waterfalls from melting snowcaps would have been so cold? We were only able to recruit one other hiker to j ump in too. Itwasn't too much worse than Lake Superior. We are now playing a nightly lottery of whether or not Ben will have to sleep in my tent with me. One of his tent poles is broken and he claims that if it comes down in the middle of the night, he's going to crawl in with me. I, in the meantime, am figuring out a way to lock the door at night.

Day 8 out of the Kennedy:
*What is the quickest way to get down the side of a mountain? That's right, on your bum. After a strenuous morning mountain pass, Ben and Paul decided to have some fun on the second pass of the day. And so, they slid down the mountain on their bums, and had wet asses for hours. However, due to a late afternoon descent, there was some serious post holing. Consensus: Glissading, most excellent; post-holing, less than most excellent.

Day 9 out of Kennedy:
*Post-holing: when walking along a snowfield and your foot or entire leg break through the soft snow creating a "post-hole." 

Post-holing mania: when you decide to traverse a pass during late afternoon and every step becomes a post-hole. This includes, but is not limited to, snow bridges over rivers, shores of lakes covered in snow, and gaps between huge boulders.

Day 10 out of Kennedy:
*The world works in mysterious ways. Ben and Paul decided to chance their resupply through the Sierras with a hiker box (surplus hiker food) at Muir Trail Ranch. Well, word on the trail was the box was empty. However, on the morning they were set to arrive at the ranch, Ben came to a river ford to find two hikers in distress. One of them lost a boot in the river. Ben offered to scan the shore, spotted the boot caught on a log on the opposite shore, and Paul showed up just in time to retrieve it. The pay-back--cous cous for days!! SSN: Awesome!

Day 11 out of Kennedy:
*With a full stash of food, Ben and Paul began the day in high spirits and celebrated their good fortune with a nice long lunch(Ben-refried beans, Paul-red beans and rice). No worries to be had. Meanwhile, one mile up the trail and unbeknownst to either Ben or Paul, an older gentleman named Bill Sullivan was sitting in the shade of a sole pine tree. Why? Because he had just broken his ankle. He sat there hoping and waiting for someone to pass; Ben and Paul basked in the sun. Sorry Bill. But when we did find him, we shared our cell phones and we shared some conversation (to keep his mind off the problem at hand), and before we knew it, a helicopter circled above preparing to evacuate Bill. Good luck Bill!

Day 12 out of Kennedy:
*Headed for Reds Meadow for a meal and some resupply. A great day besides for Ben's poor decision eating 16 dried mangos, all for himself, none for Paul. He paid for it by digging cat holes all morning.

Day 13 out of Kennedy:
*A few days to relax in the woods, visiting lakes, swimming, dipping candy bars into jars of peanut butter , and cooking dinner under makeshift shelters to combat afternoon thunderstorms.